I came of beer-drinking age at an amazing time. It was the mid-1990s, and after almost a century of bland, boring brews from Budweiser, Coors, and Miller, dominating the American beer scene, craft beer was suddenly exploding in popularity.
It was a time of unprecedented creativity and experimentation. New breweries were popping up all over the country offering an ever-expanding variety of beers. A trip to the beer store was an adventure. We could try porters, stouts, brown ales, IPAs, lagers, red ales, scotch ales, wheat beers, and many more. Brewers experimented with flavors, adding a touch of pumpkin, nutmeg, chocolate, coffee, blueberry, even apricot and cherry.
It was exciting to come home with a new beer, not sure what you were saddling up for. And it was exhilarating to have your taste buds blown away by a brilliantly crafted beer that was a new favorite.
Of course, there were some misses. Some horrible misses that would fill you with regret and occasionally lead to a pour down the sink. But, honestly, the danger was half the fun.
Fast forward 30 years and that culture of creativity is long gone.
I recently walked into a popular brewery near me to grab a pint. As I looked over their selection of eight beers, I was disappointed to find every single beer they offered was an IPA. Every. Single. One. And there wasn’t even a West Coast IPA. It was all different variations of citrusy, hazy, juicy IPAs.
Imagine going to an ice cream shop that boasts it has a wide selection of flavors, and then find they only serve vanilla. Oh! But a wide variety of vanilla! There’s vanilla bean, French vanilla, regular vanilla…
This wasn’t an isolated incident. For years it’s been this way. IPAs have taken over the craft beer market, suffocating creativity as well as taste.
On the surface it might seem craft beer culture is thriving. You’ll find local, independent craft breweries no matter where you go in the country. People gather in beer gardens. Restaurants and bars offer beers from a variety of breweries. Most stores dedicate a good amount of space in their cooler to craft beer.
But, most of the time, it’s all IPAs. In fact, the adventure has now become finding a “craft beer” that isn’t an IPA.
They’re out there. Usually in some dusty corner of the store or on a small shelf of warm stuff becoming skunked. (Make sure to check the date.)
Every once in a while I still get blown away by some amazing, creative brew. Last night I found a Mexican style chocolate stout with pumpkin puree. That’s a weird concoction, I thought. I hesitated. Trying a flavored beer can be like walking a tightrope. Too much flavor and it can be gross. Too little and it’s disappointing. It has to be juuuuuuust right. It takes real talent for a brewer to find that sweet spot. (Or luck, I guess.)
The beer sounded odd enough that I needed to try it. And that’s what craft beer should be. Unexpected. Weird. Dangerous.
And it was amazing.
Just a touch of the Mexican heat, the full body of a stout, and a sneaky hint of the pumpkin. I never would have imagined putting those together. And I’ve had some bad, overly sweet pumpkin beers. I was just blown away. It was true artistry. True craftsmanship. And that is what’s missing from today’s craft beer culture.
Maybe brewers just aren’t as creative, but I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s more that they don’t want to take chances.
Look, I get it, a brewery is a business. It’s about supply and demand. So I can’t blame brewers. If the consumer is overwhelmingly flocking to sweet, juicy IPAs, that’s what you have to give them. It’s probably a waste of time and resources to do other brews … at least, from a business perspective.
But there is so much that is lost when you ONLY offer people what they expect.
When you only offer IPAs, you rob an immensely talented brewer of their chance to be truly creative, truly artistic.
The consumer and the culture of craft beer also lose. The beauty of craft beer used to be the unexpected. Hitting folks with that concoction they didn’t see coming. Didn’t even imagine. The weird.
Beer, at its best, is an art form, not unlike painting or sculpture or architecture. Anyone who has tried homebrewing or has talked with a brewer knows how delicate and challenging the brewing process is.
When it is at its best, you get to appreciate it like art. A mindblowing craft beer can make you see beer differently, it can change what you think is possible. It can bend reality and leave you thinking “Wow, I never would have imagined that. That’s amazing.” Just like a painting or a sculpture.
Maybe it will never be like it was again. Maybe that’s the nature of things; the American way. Consumers gravitate toward something, businesses try to make a buck by catering to that one thing, and everything else gets drowned out.
Or maybe this is just one moment in time in the constant evolution of craft beer, just like that beautiful period in the 1990s. Maybe beer drinkers will get bored with IPAs and brewers will start offering more variety again. But I won’t hold my breath.
For now, I’ll put on my Indiana Jones hat and go on my adventures seeking out new or lost flavors of craft beer. I guess the harder that gets, the more of an adventure it is.
